


The Abyss

by kittimau



Series: Dragon Age Artober [1]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Canon Universe, Crestwood (Dragon Age), Gen, Guilt, Inner Dialogue, Internal Conflict, Mage Hawke (Dragon Age), Mild Language, Purple Hawke (Dragon Age), Regret, The Breach (Dragon Age)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2020-10-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:08:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26753350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kittimau/pseuds/kittimau
Summary: The Champion of Kirkwall is one Apocalypse away from losing his shit.But right now? He has a job to do.
Series: Dragon Age Artober [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1948519
Comments: 10
Kudos: 12
Collections: Beyond the Veil's Artober Event





	The Abyss

**Author's Note:**

> **Day 1:** _Breach_ \- Nightmare - Character POV

It’s always one more thing.

Killed the Big Bad? On to the Bigger Bad.

Completed a mission? Here’s five more.

So it wasn’t a surprise when Varric’s letter arrived. The first time he read it, he’d laughed. Not “this is hilarious” laughter, but “well, shit, we’re all gonna die” laughter.

Garrett sighs, idly thumbing through the crinkled yellow parchments, already worn thin at the edges. The stalactites surrounding him drip, echoing through the musty, candle-lit cavern where he bides his time. Ink smudges decorate his fingertips, streak across his forehead and cheeks from running them through his hair and beard. He reaches for the cup on the "desk", if it could even be called that, to find it empty and huffs, slamming it down upon the rough-hewn surface. Standing, he groans from the ache in his back, neck, knees. His everything.

 _I’m getting far too fucking old for this_ , he muses, pouring another drink.

First Kirkwall, and now this. The great, ugly, gaping maw in the sky taunts him every time he steps out of hiding, its swirling verdant miasma stretching and yawning further with each passing day, hour, minute.

Still, curiosity gets the better of him for the millionth time. He wanders toward the entrance of the cave, steps more lithe than a mage’s has any right to be, cup in hand and disaster on his mind. That _thing_ taints the entire sky, sickening green hues bleeding into the raw-edged bruise of impending sunset like slithering tendrils, grasping and polluting all it touches. He can feel it, even from here, rippling and electric. The sepulchral, unearthly energy extending through and beyond the Veil calls to him, a permanent and painful reminder of his failures permeating his every waking thought as well as his dreams.

There’s a rift nearby, one of the Breach’s little offspring. Demons stalk its perimeter, their presence itching beneath his skin almost as pervasively as the magic flowing through his veins. Raising a palm, a small, roiling ball of flame springs to life inches above his gauntlet. He stares into its amber depths as it flickers and dances before clenching the fist around it, snuffing it out. Were the tears in the Veil so simple to seal, perhaps he wouldn’t be in this Maker-damned _cave_. In one long pull, he drains the remainder of the cheap wine and barely resists the temptation to hurl the cup into the darkening night.

_It’s all my fault._

Blue eyes wrinkled by age and exhaustion flit to the sky once more. There was a time, not long ago, when he’d have cracked wise, masked the pain with humor and bravado. Yet now he watches the sky split apart in quiet, determined contemplation, wavering between apathy, despair, self-loathing, and seething anger.

“We stand upon the precipice of change,” she’d said. “Watch for that moment... and when it comes, do not hesitate to leap.”

He turns away.

Soon, he will do what must be done. Even if it costs him his life.

**Author's Note:**

> _Written for the Beyond the Veil Discord's Artober Event._
> 
> **Thoughts? Let me know in the comments!**
> 
>   
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> 
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